New Report: Email Still the Number One Source of Data Loss Risks, but Social Media, Mobile Devices an Increasing Concern

Today we released the latest edition of our Outbound Email and Data Loss Prevention in Today's Enterprise report, now in its seventh year. As always, this report contains a huge number of interesting findings. Check out the video preview, above, for just a few of the top findings. This year, IT decision makers from 261 large US enterprises (all with 1000 or more employees) responded to our survey, conducted with the help of Osterman Research.

You can find more highlighted findings about how large enterprises manage data loss risks in our press release. Better yet, download the complete report, by visiting http://www.proofpoint.com/outbound.

I'll be blogging more about this throughout the week, but here are just a few of the most interesting findings:

Proofpoint found that, despite a growing awareness of data loss risks, large enterprises continue to be impacted by data loss at a surprising rate:

• 36% of respondents said their organization was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the past 12 months.
• 31% of respondents said their organization was impacted by the improper exposure or theft of customer information in the past 12 months.
• 29% of respondents said their organization was impacted by the improper exposure or theft of intellectual property in the past 12 months.

Enterprise concerns and data loss events from social media continued to rise in the past 12 months:

• Social Networking Sites (such as Facebook and LinkedIn): 20% of companies investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via a post to a social networking site. 7% of companies terminated an employee for social networking policy violations. Twenty percent disciplined an employee for such violations. 53% are highly concerned about the risk of information leakage via social networking sites. 53% explicitly prohibit the use of Facebook, while 31% explicitly prohibit use of LinkedIn.
  
• Blog and Message Board Postings: 25% of companies investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via a blog or message board posting. 11% of companies terminated an employee for blog or message board posting policy violations. 54% are highly concerned about the risk of information leakage via blogs and message boards.
  
• SMS and Web-Based Short Messaging Services (such as Twitter): 17% of companies investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via one of these services. 51% are highly concerned about the risk of information leakage. 49% explicitly prohibit the use of Twitter.
  
• Media Sharing Sites (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo): 18% of companies investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via shared video or audio m5edia. 9% of companies terminated an employee for media sharing/posting policy violations. 21 disciplined an employee for such violations. 52% are highly concerned about the risk of information leakage. 53% explicitly prohibit the use of media-sharing sites.